A Critical Review of Writings in English (Hardbound - 2017)

Besides other essays, A Critical Review of Writings in English mainly includes essays on some eminent Indian writers in English with reference to their respective works. Here is an exploration of the generation clash in the world of Malgudi, so enchantingly created by R.K. Narayan. An attempt has been made to analyse the thematic web of Girish Karnad’s multi-layered, though relatively less talked-about play—Bali. The intricate structural design of The God of Small Things offers a rewarding and fascinating study of the novel from this point of view. Jhumpa Lahiri’s debut story collection Interpreter of Maladies does have many inviting facets to it and, therefore, apart from a critical appraisal of this book, there are two more essays separately on the immigrant experience and the portrayal of marital relationships in these stories. In Manju Kapur’s novel, Difficult Daughters the protagonist, Virmati evokes a response that is replete with uneasy questions. This anthology also includes essays on two most outstanding bilingual poets—Arun Kolatkar and Dilip Chitre. Exile is not the same experience with a woman as it is for a man. The essay “Images of Women in Exile” takes into account the portrayal of the women character in exile as portrayed by Anita Desai, Bharati Mukherjee, Manju Kapur, and Jhumpa Lahiri. Not much has been written on Satyajit Ray as a sci-fi writer. One of the essays attempts to have a comparative look at him, viz. the fictional writings of Jayant Vishnu Narlikar. This book has also an essay on the short stories of Krishna Baldev Vaid who has translated some of his writings into English from Hindi and is one of the most experimental writers. One of the essays analyses Meena Alexander’s novel Nampally Road, whereas another one examines the emerging Indian urban youth in the novels of Chetan Bhagat. Apart from these, this anthology includes essays on Tennessee Williams, Anne Tyler and Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. Also, two essays deal respectively with popular literature and the complex act of translation.

Ashutosh Dubey is professor and Head, Department of English, Mata Jijabai Govt. Girls P.G. College, Motitabela, Indore. He has published and presented several papers in reputed journals and conferences. His doctoral work is on the comparative study of women characters of Thomas Hardy and Sarat Chandra Chatterjee. A bilingual poet and critic, he is recipient of prestigious awards like Akhil Bhartiya Makhanlal Chaturvedi Award, Raza Puraskar, Kedar Samman, and Vageeshwari Puraskar. He has four collections of poetry in Hindi besides a number of articles, reviews, and translations in various journals. Actively engaged in supervising Ph.D. scholars, he has delivered talks in various reputed institutions and convened a national seminar. His areas of interest include Indian Writing in English, Comparative Literature, Creative Writing in English and Hindi, Translation and Women’s Studies. He has also been associated with literary journals like The Post Colonial Journal of India—Discourse, Aaveg, etc. Besides translation into several Indian languages like Punjabi, Marathi, Kannada, Bangla, etc. his poems have also been translated in German in Moderne Indische Literatur Band 7 ‘Felshinschriften’ by Monika Horstmann and Vishnu Khare; Draupadi Verlag, Heidelberg (Summer 2007).